Santa Monica Fire Deputy Chief Tom Clemo has barely slept since Saturday. He’s spent the last three days based in a high school in Spokane helping manage the response to devastating wildfires sweeping across eastern Washington.
Three blazes ignited in the Spokane area Saturday while the region was under a “particularly dangerous situation” alert — the same extreme fire weather warning Los Angeles County was under when the Palisades and Eaton fires began.
Fueled by ample dry vegetation after a snow-poor winter, the Spokane blazes had, by Monday, destroyed more than 700 structures and forced some 67,000 residents to evacuate…